Jump to main content
IndustriALL logotype
Article placeholder image

Turkish Miners' Leader Murdered

Read this article in:

14 July, 2005ICEM News release No. 44/1999

Semsi Denizer, President of the Turkish miners' union Genel Maden-Is, was shot dead outside his home last Friday evening.

The union, which is based in the mining town of Zonguldak, was in the middle of its three-day Congress. Semsi Denizer was murdered a few hours after addressing the opening day's session. He was shot six times in the head. Police arrested a man immediately afterwards.

Denizer was also General Secretary of the Turkish labour confederation Türk-Is. Recently, he had been leading a broadly based campaign against government proposals to raise the age of retirement in Turkey. This plan, strongly opposed by Turkish workers, is part of the government's response to demands by the International Monetary Fund for tougher austerity measures.

The motives for last Friday's shooting are unclear. A Türk-Is spokesman told ICEM UPDATE this morning that the unions were insisting on a full police investigation, and would reserve further comment until all the facts are known.

Semsi Denizer will best be remembered for leading 50,000 striking miners in an epic protest march from Zonguldak to Ankara in 1991. This dramatic demonstration helped to prevent mine closures in the region and to improve pay and conditions.

Semsi Denizer was on the Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which Genel Maden-Is is affiliated. The ICEM has expressed its profound condolences to his family and his union. In a tribute, the ICEM described Semsi Denizer's death as "a great blow to the Turkish miners whom he led to victory in 1991 and to the international trade union movement as a whole."